There’s still time left to see one of the best college basketball teams that no one knows, at least no one outside of Ohio.
Time to see a wonderful pint-sized guard named Andrew Mitchell, who is so cool, so savvy, so clutch, he ought to change his name to Jerry West.
Time to see Trevor Huffman, putting on a clinic of what it means to share the ball and the attention.
It’s time to see Kent State, which beat Bowling Green 76-64 at the M.A.C. Center last Monday night.
Word is leaking out. Fans are pouring in.
There were 5,350 of them Monday with the only empty benches upstairs, in the far corners. Not bad on a night when the roads were snowy and slick, when it was easy to say, “I think I’ll stay home and watch ESPN.”
“I remember when there was almost nobody at our games,” said senior guard Andrew Mitchell. “Now, we have a lot of people who follow us on the road. Everything has changed.”
Kent State drew about 1,800 fans when Gary Waters was hired six years ago. Now, the average attendance is 4,671–the second-highest in the MAC–and virtually all the chairs in the lower bowl are sold out.
“I never imagined it would be like this,” said Kent State athletic director Laing Kennedy.
He means everything from the ticket sales to the record.
Yes, he expected his basketball team to win, even after Waters left for Rutgers last spring. And he knew they were better than their 4-4 record under new coach Stan Heath to open the season.
But Kent State has won 13-of-14. It has a dominating 10-1 record in the Mid-American Conference. The Flashes were never better than 13-5 in league play under Waters.
The Flashes have a group of gritty, experienced players who have rallied around their rookie head coach to rebound better than ever, leading the conference in that category after being one of the worst in the league the year before.
Meanwhile, Kent State fans are planning to keep the month of March open, because there just might be a third trip in the last four years to the NCAA tournament.
These Flashes are that good. And playing that well.
Just ask Bowling Green, which two weeks ago was supposed to be the premier team in the MAC. Twice, Kent State has beaten BG this season. According to BG coach Dan Dakich, the first time Kent State did it with offense, the second time, defense.
Good teams do that.
Win this way, win that way.
Beat you outside, control you inside. They can outscore you, they can shut you down.
“These guys are so unselfish,” marveled Heath. “We really don’t have any high-maintenance kids. I look at Trevor Huffman. He sacrificed his offense to guard Keith (McLeod) and to pass off to our big guys. It would have been easy for him to say he wanted his shots, but he let the other guys do that. He did the dirty work.”
Huffman set up Nate Gerwig (21 points) for several layups and dunks with his drives to the basket., drawing defensive attention, then delivering perfect passes to Gerwig just inches from the rim.
Huffman, the team’s leading scorer a year ago, had only three points against BG, yet Kent State won convincingly.
Mitchell said there was a point early in the season when the team was still in mourning about losing Waters, still wondering about Heath and all his emphasis on rebounding and a set half-court offense.
The four seniors talked. Demetric Shaw, Eric Thomas, Huffman and Mitchell. The games were slipping away, opportunities were being wasted. They would never be seniors again, never again playing together.
They bonded. Mitchell became the unofficial liaison between Heath and the players, the senior guard having both the respect and the diplomatic skills to communicate with about anyone.
Heath gave the guards a little more freedom on offense. The entire team gave the coach more effort on the boards.
“It came together,” said Mitchell. “Now, we just want to go out with a bang.”
And everyone in the MAC is hearing that message, loud-and-clear.
